End of the Year Ideas {and some for next year too... and maybe a FREEBIE!!!}

Today was "Bridge Day"... everyone in the district moved up a grade for a few hours this morning.

I had a room full of 2nd graders... and now... the reality is setting in that the year is almost over!

I LOVE my class this year so so so so so much!  I always love all of my classes, but this group is extra special and I am not excited about seeing them go at the end of the year!

I want to do some things to make the end of the year special for them, so we'll be making a memory book combined with our monthly photos.

I have this pack up for free on TpT.  We do a picture and writing every single month and I hang them in our "baggie quilt" in the hallway...

Each month, the new pic and writing goes in the front so we'll soon be pulling all of these out and putting them in chronological order.  I love this because now every student has a book with a picture and writing sample {just a quick one!} to look back on for every month this school year.  I pulled all of the pages out of a few when I put in the pics for this month and it's AMAZING how much they've grown!

After we organize them in chronological order, I'll bind them into a book... and put some memory book pages in the back that we can work on the last few days of school.  It's a pretty simple memory book but I find my kiddos start getting sloppy when I do really long ones, so we'll try this quick one this year.

I know it's May so it's too late to do the pics and monthly writing now, but please stock this idea away and do it next year!

You can get the memory book for FREE!!!!  Click the pic below!

I also will be passing out awards at the end of the year.  I love doing this ceremony because EVERYONE will get recognized for something... from "Quiet as a..." for that one who is always so silent to "No Dust Bunnies" for your sweetie with a clean desk, there is literally something for everyone in here!  They're quick to complete in PowerPoint and everyone smiles and gets excited waiting to see what they'll be recognized for!

One last thing... did you know TpT is having their TEACHER APPRECIATION SALE Tuesday and Wednesday???  Stock up for next year and save 28%... just use the code "Thank You" at check out to get 10% extra off and save 20% in my store automatically too!

Thanks, Ashley Marquez, for the image!!!

What do you need for next year???  SNAPSHOTS!  Show What You Know!  Guided reading passages!  3rd grade assessments!  Quick and easy newsletters!  Quick and easy parent notes!  Wax Museum organization!  ThoughtMARKS for comprehension!  Writer's Notebooks!

Happy shopping!

End of the Year Memory Book

I've been done with school since 11:20am on Friday... but I know some of you are still hanging in there for a few more days!

I've just posted a memory book freebie on TpT.  We made this memory book last week and had fun talking about the great things we did during the school year.

There are covers for grades 1-6, so don't let the picture of a 3rd grade cover in the preview throw you off!

I'd love to know what you think!

You can snag your copy by clicking the picture below.

Remember what I'm doing today?

Painting my bulletin boards!

I'll have some before and after pics up tomorrow or the next day... wish me luck!  I am NOT a fan of painting!

Quick and Easy "Thank You" for Helpers

It's getting to be that time... time to thank the people who have helped out in your classroom this year!

Many teachers in my building have high school mentors who come over for about an hour each day to help in the classroom.  Mine this year has done everything from copy and laminate to work with kids and help with messes in the classroom.

Our mentors are graduating and tomorrow is their last day!  So, I bought donuts to take in and my kiddos made this super cute book for him...

I wrote a letter message on the first page and then did a little bit of extra cutting and gluing to make a "hand pocket" to stick a gift card in!

And each kid, of course, made a page.  They drew a picture in the hand and wrote a message.  I just HAD to share this one...

 

"I am so happy that you are graduating from high school.  You are a kindhearted man."  I love it!  One of my boys' letters included the line, "...You are a good kid".  I've been laughing about those all afternoon!  After those two notes, I'm surprised I didn't find a, "Good luck in college, sonny"!

If you're looking for a fun, quick, and easy "Thank You", you can get this one at my TpT store for FREE!

Click HERE or the pic below to head to my store to snag it!

This weekend's agenda is making my End of the Year awards.  If you're looking for a great pack with awards for literally everyone... check this one out!  They are bright and colorful... and fillable!  All you have to do is open them and you can type right on the PDF to add student names!  Easy peasy!

Or... if you want to do something different, I have end of the year candy bar wrappers with happy summer wishes in this "Sweet Treats" pack!  I gave these out at Valentine's Day and they were a super hit!  These are personalizable in Powerpoint.

End of the Year Parent Survey Freebie!

I have four days left... and I'm getting a little sad!  I've had half of my people for two years now and I'm sooo going to miss them!

I'm working on wrapping up my end of the year stuff this weekend.

First on my list is to finish my classroom awards.  We have a general awards assembly as a school, but the awards are academic, attendance, and citizenship and I have a few kids who won't receive an award.  So, I always do awards in my classroom too after the assembly.  Everyone will get an award at that time.  I know it's important that kids understand that you have to work hard to get awarded, but they get to learn that lesson during the big assembly.  In my room afterwards, I want everyone feeling good and getting something!

Here are the awards I'll be passing out... I made awards for everything from academic stuff to kindness to sharing to having a clean desk to someone who always is humming or singing a tune to share their love of music with the class!

Check them out on TpT- I'm keeping them at a sale price until my last day of school!

Last week I sent home an end of the year parent survey to get some feedback on classroom things so I can plan for next year.  You can get a copy of the survey at my TpT or Teacher's Notebook shops for FREE!

Find it on TpT or on Teacher's Notebook

Most of my parents sent them back on Friday and they've given me some good feedback and some happy notes too!  :)

Monday is our "Homework Hall of Fame" pizza party for the students who were in the homework club every month for the year.  I'm so thrilled that, for the 2nd year in a row, 100% of my students had 100% homework completion for the year!  Now, that does mean that once in a while someone didn't do their homework but then did it the next night and returned it.  But I'm pretty psyched!  They couldn't WAIT for me to tell them who was invited to the pizza party... so I got to do a lot of "after we're done working quietly for the next 10 minutes, I'll let you know who is in the hall of fame"... sneaky sneaky!

Happy Saturday!

End of the Year Memories Freebie

I am so TIRED!  We spent the day at a historic (an historic?) one room school house and then to the fruit farm!  I'm burnt and tired, but it was super fun.  And I got the last of the pictures I needed to finish my end of the year movie... which is being burnt onto a test DVD right now!!!!!!!

The fabulous most teeny tiny teacher, Kristin, wondered what songs I included... well, I would never want to violate copyright laws by including music I don't have the rights to... but... if I DID include songs, I suppose I would have things like "Hoedown" for our first day of school pics (Western theme and all), Chuck Berry's "School Days" and the Jackson 5's "ABC" for classroom stuff, Bruno Mars' "Count on Me" and "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story for other stuff... possibly "Thriller" for Halloween, "Jingle Bells" by the Glee cast for Christmas, ELO's "Beautiful Day" and Jack Johnson's "We Are Gonna Be Friends" might also be included.  I would probably also add some instrumental stuff like "Chopsticks", "In the Hall of the Mountain King", maybe some "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" for holiday stuff and also the Green Lantern theme... the version from the movie "Kill Bill" is a good one.

So... there's my two cents!  ;)

Yesterday I took in the pictures of each kid that I didn't use for the scrapbooks that I made and they had to pick their favorite one and write about the memory of that day for one last hallway display.

Here's a picture of how they turned out.

They had so much fun looking through them and sharing pictures with friends.  It got me super excited about actually giving them their scrapbooks!

You can get your own copy of the writing paper below!  This could be a nice keepsake for your kiddos too, if you're looking for a quick end of the year gift... possibly a framed picture and a piece of outstanding writing to go with it!  :)

I'll be back around this weekend!  Have a good Friday!

My End of the Year Gift for My Kiddos...

This is my 6th year teaching and each year, I have made my students a sort-of-scrapbook as an end of the year gift.  I can't take credit for the idea... my fabulous first principal's daughter's 2nd grade teacher (did you follow that?) made them and my principal thought it was up my alley so she showed me and I've been doing it ever since!

It takes a while, but I do a little bit each month when I scrapbook and then at the end of the year, it's just a matter of cropping and sticking the pictures.

Tonight I got them DONE DONE DONE... well, except for the spot on the front of each where the class photo needs to go.  It's hard to get everyone at school on the same day!  I'm hoping that will happen tomorrow and I'll be able to get someone to take our picture so I can print and finish them this weekend while I'm wrapping up our end of the year DVD.

Anyway... here are the pictures for one of my kiddos.  The big space on the front is for the class photo which, as you now know, is impossible to take.  And the big white splotch is where I edited out the rest of this friend's name.  I use a big scrapbooking letter for their first initial and then finish their name with colorful stickers.  Everyone gets different stickers and big letters (whatever "leftovers" I have from my own projects) and they love seeing everyone's names!

We're working on an end of the year memory book right now, which I bind inside each one of these.

Making these was especially fun as I had half of these kids last year too... wow have they grown!  It's fun to look at the pictures and see where teeth grow in and baby fat goes away... these are such big kiddos now!

When I get invited to my first high school graduations in 2017, I hope I see these out from when I had my first class of 2nd graders in 2007!

I'm linking up with Courtney at Swimming Into Second... can't wait to see what everyone else is doing for their sweeties!

So TIRED, a Great Book, and a Freebie!

I am EXHAUSTED! Having a week off and then going back to work has kicked my butt!

My kiddos have been amazing and I have gotten a TON of good teaching in the past two days. Today we started collecting research for a weather report. They are working in small groups and they were buzzing away with interesting facts and highlighting like crazy! :)

 

 

We're also working on persuasive writing AND reviewing main idea this week. Yikes, I know. BUT... I found this great book called A Pig Parade is a Terrible Idea and we used it today to, not only identify the author's purpose and the effectiveness of his argument, but also to locate main ideas and details.  They *so* got it.  We'll see if I can strike gold again tomorrow with main idea in a non-fiction text.




I'm posting my fillable end of the year awards pack on TpT and Teacher' Notebook tonight. It has 40 awards that are fillable... so you don't have to write everyone's name out if you don't want to. There are awards for good friends, good partners, good spellers, growth in reading and math... and some unique awards too- "No Dust Bunnies" for kids who keep a neat and tidy area, "Marvelous Musician" for that one who is always humming or singing a tune, and even a "No Peeping" award for that kiddo who is always so quiet!

You can download the perfect attendance award for free at my TpT shop- just click the link below!

TpT (for the freebie!)          Teacher's Notebook

Check back in later this week for a great giveaway!!!!!!!  My kiddos are currently testing out a product and will be writing persuasive pieces to review it and I'll give you one for free!  (Actually, Learning Resources will... but I'll do the giveaway!!!)

The linky party for split/multi-age classrooms is still open... I hope you'll link up!